Sorry for the lack of postings this past week, but I didn’t have Internet access readily available. With that said, here is how the week went…

On Sunday, we (mom went with) took off for Detroit around 10 a.m. We had a connecting flight in Chicago and ended up landing in San Diego at about 6 p.m. It was nice gaining the extra 3 hours. The temperature was 78 degrees, but it was almost dark already. We picked up our rental car (Pontiac Grand Am), checked into the Wyndham (a very nice hotel) and grabbed something to eat at Chili’s, which was right in front of the hotel. After eating we decided to hit up a casino.

The Viejas Casino (pronounced “Vee-A-Haas”) was one that I had found online with a poker room. I scoped out the poker room and put my name on a waiting list for a table. It wasn’t too long and I was playing the $2/$4 beginner Hold’em table. Since it was the beginner table to teach people how to play, check-raising was not allowed. Talk about a loose table! People were playing every hand imaginable. I didn’t really get shit for cards the whole night or I could have made out like a bandit. Played for about 3 and a half hours and lost $22. Not too bad considering how bad my cards were.

On Monday morning I got to class about 25 minutes early just to make sure that I could find everything. Class started about an hour late because the instructor was still getting the computers ready and one guy couldn’t find the place so he was late getting there. To my surprise there were only 6 of us taking the class! The group was a fun one though, with a lot of sarcasm and joking around. Of course you can never get away from having one older woman who seems to know everything. She would continuously jump in during the middle of someone’s story of put words into the instructor’s mouth. One week was plenty to spend with her!

It was another gorgeous San Diego day, but once class got out at 5 and you drove somewhere, it was pretty much dark already. Especially since driving anywhere takes forever in all that traffic. I don’t know how they live with so many people in California. On the other hand though, the views are beautiful and the weather is perfect. We did end up going out to the La Jolla (“Hoya”) area to see the ocean and the last few minutes of the sunset. This was really the only day that I got many pictures. After the sun went down, we walked around looking for some shops, but almost everything seems to shutdown early. We ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and headed back to the casino. I decided to move up a notch and played $3/$6 Kill Hold’em. Again, I was getting shit cards. Played about 4 hours and 15 minutes and lost $86.

On Tuesday, I had a full day of class. Mom talked to some people at the hotel and found places to go shopping and eat. So after I got back to the hotel, we took off to battle the traffic once again. We went to big outdoor mall, but they didn’t have much for stores that we were looking for. I wanted a place where I could find a few travel gifts for people. After walking through the place we were off to Del Mar to eat dinner. We drove around for I don’t know how long before we decided to park and then walk it. Finally Mom asked where a good place to eat was and we went to a restaurant called Jake’s.

We had calamari as an appetizer. When they brought it out, we looked at each other like “wtf”. It wasn’t the normal round rings that we were used to and it was in an orange sauce. It was the best calamari I’ve ever had! For the main course we both ordered the shrimp scampi. Again when the food came out, we held back our laughter. When you watch movies or shows on TV and you see people getting these plates with barely any food on them, you think, “You’re joking right?” Well, there was some kind of rice circle thingy in the middle with about 5 or 6 shrimp placed perfectly around it. On the side were carrots and peas to “make it look good” you could say. We both dove right in and again the food was excellent! And to both of our surprise, we were full. Damages…$80, but that does include 3 Heinekens (which has moved up to the top of my beer list) for $4.50 each. Since it was going to be a long day of class on Wednesday, we decided to head back to the casino. I was tired and in bed by 10:30.

On Wednesday, we started class at 8:30, worked through lunch (ordered pizza), and got out at 5 again. There was a lot of material to cover! For dinner we decided we wanted some seafood again, so we hit up Red Lobster. I love that place. We had some lobster rollup things for an appetizer and I had the Ultimate Feast with a couple of Heinekens. Great meal, but $80 again!

We headed back to the casino where I played the $2/$4 beginner game again, but came out $71 ahead this time. I was getting decent cards, but played really well to go along with it. If it hadn’t been for a few bad beats, I would have been smoking!

Thursday was another typical day of 9-5 class. There was an outlet mall along with the casino, so we wanted to check it out. After walking through it and again, not finding the stores we wanted, we headed to the casino, without eating. We had a large Chinese lunch, so we weren’t very hungry. I went to the $3/$6 Kill Hold’em table again, after waiting about 20-30 minutes for a table.

It was one bad beat after another! I hit the nut flush in a 5 way pot that was capped pre-flop, only to have someone?s miracle card hit and be beat with a full house. It was easily a $100 pot. On another hand, the board flopped K-K-9, and no one bet after the flop, so I bet on the turn when another K came and I had a 9. Sure enough, I get check-raised and couldn’t fold at that point. He had the other K and I lost another big pot. It was insane how many bat beats I had. I lost $150 in about 5 or 6 hours.

On Friday we got through most of the material during the morning, so I didn’t go back to class for the afternoon. It was going to be mostly lab time and I got through all of the previous lab examples with a breeze. Mom wanted some pizza, so we hit up Pizza Hut for a large lunch. It was kind of chilly out and overcast so we figured we might as well head to the casino before all of the rush hour traffic. I sat down at a $3/$6 table at 2:15. I was up for a brief period, but then the bad beats started to hit like an out of control disease. Two hands early I held A-K and had an A hit on the flop. Sure enough, people kept calling and then their miracle card hit on the river for their straight or flush. It didn’t take long for me to lose the first $100, so I bought in for $40, then $40 more. After about 4 hours I bought in for another $40, so I now had $220 in on the day. The table ended up breaking up because a tournament was starting.

I got in on another table and was doing OK, except for all of the bad beats. On this table and the previous table, it seemed like each time I held a pocket pair (raising pre-flop of course), I would hit my trips on the flop and bet out. Sure enough, I got rivered 80% of the time, maybe more. It was unreal! I should have been up a couple of hundred instead of down $200.

My chip count kept going up and down and then I thought I finally hit my big pot. I held pocket 8s and the flop came 4-8-9…my trips hit again, so I’m raising like crazy. The turn came 4, so now I had a full house, and again was raising. The river card made a possible flush so I thought ?sweet, someone hit their flush and will be betting again.? Yup, one guy bet (who had been calling all the way), so I raised, the other guy who had been raising a little bit folded, and the original better called. I showed my 8s full and to my surprise he had pocket 9s!! There were only two possible hands that could have beat me, pocket 4s or pocket 9s, and he had them. That was another $100 pot. Shortly after that hand Mom stopped by to see how things were going. It was around 11 or midnight already. She headed back down to the slots and I ordered some food to eat right at the table.

A little while later I got pocket Aces two hands in a row and won both hands. My chip count was still going up and down around $100 or so. People kept leaving the table and then 3 clowns sat down that played anything and everything to the river. Sure enough, I got a few more bad beats on hands I should have easily won. Just before 2:30 a.m. I gave up the last of my chips. I was down $220 for the night and had played for twelve straight hours! I went downstairs to find Mom.

We decided it didn’t do us any good to go back to the hotel and sleep since we had to be at the airport early anyways. I said, “what the hell” and went back to the poker room. I slapped down $40 at another $3/$6 and had the time of my life! I was catching the best pocket cards I’ve ever had and the flops were exactly what I needed. I had pocket Kings twice, A-K, A-X suited, high cards, other pocket pairs. Almost everything was hitting on the board. It was even hitting so good that the flop came 9-9-2 when I didn’t have much of a hand. I check-raised and everyone folded! I sat at that table for 2 hours and walked away with $243 in chips, so I only lost $17 for the day!

I’ve always heard of poker players having a long session of play, but never thought I would be able to do it. I did on Friday/Saturday…it was 14 hours of play with only a few runs to the bathroom and then the time I went to find my Mom. For the week I played about 33 hours of poker (compared to 31 hours in class) and lost $200. I’ve learned a lot and will be more prepared next time I play at a casino.

The weather couldn’t have turned out any better for the week, it’s just too bad that I didn’t get to enjoy it since I was in class all day long and it was just about dark when I got out of class. They even had record temperatures a few of the days. It is a much better climate than in Michigan. It was in the 80s a few days, but with only 20-30% humidity, it’s a bearable heat, not like in Michigan where you are dripping wet when it’s that hot. I wouldn’t mind going back someday for a visit when I can enjoy the days more.

The amount of traffic in California is unbelievable. It would have been my driving heaven, but the rental policy said that you had to be 25 to drive so there was no point in risking it. Mom was going crazy driving. The freeways are sometimes 7 or 8 lanes wide and the parking spots barely allow room to open your door. I guess they need to use all of the room available to fit all the vehicles.

It’s good to be home!

Update…I forgot to add a few things to this post. Read part II.